Lent is here. After the quiet of Advent, the joy of Christmas and the light of Epiphany the church finds herself gathered together on this Holy Day of Ash Wednesday where we begin to walk the road of Lent. For many of us Ash Wednesday and its focus on sin, penitence, and the reminder that we "are dust and to dust [we] shall return" can be confusing or downright disheartening. Some people I speak with talk about Lent as a dark and dreary time where we punish ourselves for what we have done and what we have failed to do. For others Lent is a season that they simply tolerate, unsure why in the world the Church keeps this ancient tradition.

All too often in the history of the Church, Lent has been a season of darkness and even punishment. As a result so many of us fail to see the wonderful gift that this Ash Wednesday, and the season of Lent which it ushers in, offers us. Lent is a time for the Church and each individual member of the Church to stop and take stock of our life. Lent is a gracious invitation from God for us to remember the core reality of who we are—creatures made in the image of God, redeemed by God, called to be in a loving, life-giving relationship with God. Lent is a time when we are invited by the Church to take on special actions which remind us of this life-affirming, joy-giving reality. Maybe the action which we choose to take throughout Lent is fasting today and Good Friday. Maybe the action is giving up sweets or meat or negative thinking about a certain situation or person. Maybe the action is doing intentional devotions each and every day, or taking on special acts of service for others. Whatever that action is; we are called through our Lenten devotion to grow closer to Christ—not to simply give up food and be uncomfortable. Our Lenten devotion is a tangible sign to ourselves of our desire to grow closer to God, to find ourselves filled with life and joy through the power of the Spirit. The Season of Lent is an opportunity for all of us to join together in this common goal of growing deeper in our love and relationship with our neighbors and with Jesus.

Today we are invited, beckoned, by God to draw ever closer to Jesus, the very image of the loving and forgiving God of our creation. This theme of beckoning, inviting you and me into life in God echoes time and again throughout our Ash Wednesday readings. God calls out to us through the words of Joel—Return to me my beloved people. Similarly, the Psalmist calls out, reminding us that our forgiving God "has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west." In place of a stern and angry Deity, the psalmist speaks of the God of our salvation in this way, "As a father cares for his children, so does the LORD care for those who fear him."

My dear friends, as we enter this season of Lent, as the ashes are put on our foreheads, may we understand deep within ourselves that God is calling to us, beckoning us back to a life of love, a life of joy, a life of purpose. Our loving God—the God who formed us out of the dust and breathed his own life into us—our God wants us to come back, to live life fully and completely wrapped in his presence and love.

This Ash Wednesday is an invitation to all of us to deeper, fuller life. We are invited to walk this road together, as a Church community, to find together the incredible mercy and love of God. This beginning of Lent is our opportunity not to be overcome with guilt and regret, but instead to be filled as individuals and as a community with the joyful realization that our God is beckoning us, calling us. "Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation."